Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-07-02
QUEENS OF THE RANCH.
Theodore Roosevelt Says These are Not
Newspaper Myths, but Stern Reali-
ties-A Desperate Life
For a Woman, but One in Which Pluck
Succeeds-One Woman Who Killed
Twenty five Men.
New York Mail and Express

New York Mail and Express.
Theodore Roosevelt, 20 whom his Ds-
kota ranch is an oDjtcs of interest quite
as engrossing a. the luCkless Mugwump,
and regarded with rather more friendly
feelings, says that The rsnchwoman-the
cattle queen, as the west Is falling into
the way Of styling hers no newspaper
myth. she exists, her numbers ere IN
creasing, and she is one q the most char
actsristIc types that the conditions OF
American life have evolved. She is the
modern Independent wOman, but win q
difference. she does not stand on her
OWL feet Ike the New York wo-
man, because she feels her infu-
ence jn society, nor like the New
E1GlaMd woman, because she has been
taught 10 think for herself, but because,
Ike I'll frOntiersm5n, she has been forced
70 act for herself. and Wita true western
grit SIZE does it well. Size knows how to
take care Of herself she knows Row to
take care Of her cattle. she knows now to
make her children 3 homestead and q
! heritage. Occasionally, she SHOWS What
I few selfsuppoTtiug women have yet
/ learned, how 20 MAKE money rot only 10
1 live on Ou5 to grow rich on, as men and
/ rich men count wealth nowadays
"There are women all over the west"
| Mr.. Roosevelt said the other day, "who
/ have come TO be ss thoroughly capable
of managing their own affairs Tor them
selves as if they were the shrewdest Of
men.
FORTITUDE AND PATIENCE
we always look for in o woman, but cool
bravery and business talent are qualities
that sometimes come out strongest when
she finds herself fsCiug ! rude civilization
and left to shift for herself as best she
can. Life on The ranch is certainly rough
for q woman. There is 10 call to pity
pioneer Of the other sex, for II he has he
right stuff IN hin il won't hurt him 10
buckle right down 10 the bone, and then
he can't but succeed. But for g woman,
10 an esSterner Ct least, it seems differ
ent. And yst,iso far as one can see, they
like it, good many Of them, and it brings
out the BEST that is liz them. They are
not all angels by any means, AMI woman
desperate is sometimes quite as muCl 10
be feared as the worst Of Ire men
There was one down in ArZO1& whom
the ranChmen tell tales 81 yet, ana with
something Ike pride in her EXPLOITS, too,
who killed, SO they say, twenty-five men
with her OWa hands. She was 2 hard
rider and crack shot, SO that it was de-
Cidedly risky 10 be covered by h5r rife.
But that same pluck and courage thst she
showed tUrncd into more peaCs iUi Cl2g-
nels makes speGGid success Of scme Of
Inc TanchWOmeG. The women who are
managing cattle ranges fer themselves,
not helping their husbands gain Q footing,
which Is sometimes about s. hNTd, come
from al social ranks and have dTif.ed into
the DusinGs--I don't know what proper /
ton OF their have deliberately CHOSEN
it-in sli sorts CT ways. Some II them |
are Texans who we're almost
CRADLRD WITH CATTLE,
and 10 whom running mower, feeding |
stock, breaking wild horses, or doing any !,
sort OF work about & ranch Is so much g |
matter Of education aud habit that it |
seems as much their natural occupation |
as taxing ia sewing to q nota lie house !
wife left widow IN al eastern village. !
They take hold Cleverly with their kus-
bands if they marry; they strike cut for
themselves on small scale, which some
times grows to q larger one, il they don't. |
Other ranch women, especially in Da-
SOta, come from New England, New York
or the states north Of the Ohio. There
are school teachers among them who have
concluded to train something that may
possibly shoot more prof ably than the
unfruitful young idea. Most Of them
went west in the first place,
with their husbands, TO see what could
be done II 4 new country, and when the
man Of the family died or broke down,
the wife, rather thsn sacrifice the foot
hold already gained, stayed on, learned
by experience, bought her knowledge
pretty dearly sometimes, failed utterly
perhaps, if the winters were bad or 9 fire
swept her buildings; succeeded more
probably, Krpt ner stock ii good shape,
added u their numbers, and came ont
ahaSd little every year, /, is no iake 10
succeed in Dakota il embarrassing, or
ree-plautiug, or Wnea5 farming, bp.
women can and 10 make money il all
three. Success is graded, CT course, as
elsewhere.
THE WOMEN RANCHERs
whom know personal y-snd that Is no
very large nCmDeT-are not in the bust
less on . very large scale. Some OF them
are net rauChi2g as eastern people, WIN
heir IDEAS Of the bigless OF western up-
.rauons, interpret the word 81 all They
nave no mOEe than SIX or tea cattle, per
maps, and from that The number VIII run
up to twenty-five or fifty head, but they
ere al energetic and bueiness-like Get OF
who are working industriously
ii the day 81 small things, and, OF course,
with some, though perhaps with no large
number Of others, the day of larger things
has already come"
How the rsnchwCmsn, whose business
enterprise Mr.. Roosevelt Commends in
the west, sometimes makes her start
from the east, is illustrated in the case
lt New York boarding house keeper,
VINO is working at both ends of the line !
ust now. Keeping boarders is one of
he most wearisome and discouraging
ways in which woman earns q living. {
But when she can keep l50 of them the {
;ase is different indeed. This energetic
woman had laid by money enough some /
hree or four years ago TO take up land
u Dakota and stock on small scale, {
attic range. Since that time hercattle '
lave thriven, and her boarding has pros {
oered. With sthesprofits of the latter she
las increased the number and improved
he breed of the former, and is looking
Onward TO the day, not very for distant,
when :